Ipswich v Nottingham Forest: Preview, predicted line-ups & team news

Nobody at Forest will be sleeping easily this week.

The visitors arrive in Suffolk 19th in the Premier League with five points from seven games, and they have yet to score a single goal at home this season.

That is a statistic that gets noticed, even in a campaign this young.

A Friday night under the lights at Portman Road is hardly the place to fix it, though it does at least offer a break from the City Ground.

Ipswich have their own wobbles, having lost their last two, but they have the cushion of a mid-table position and a home crowd that has seen two wins from three this term.

Ipswich are tenth with nine points from seven games, and their season so far has been a rollercoaster of the entertaining kind.

They have won three, lost four and drawn none, which tells you they rarely do things by halves.

They have scored 11 and conceded 15, and the damage has mostly come on their travels, where they are shipping 2.8 goals a game.

At home, the story is gentler: 1.3 scored and 1.3 conceded per game, and two wins from three.

The latest result was a 3-2 defeat at Manchester City last Saturday, which at least showed they can score against the best, and it followed a 2-1 home win over Fulham.

The worry is that they have not kept a clean sheet all season.

Forest have taken one win from seven, and it came away from home in September, a 2-1 success.

Since then it has been a grim run, with defeats to Coventry, Crystal Palace and Arsenal (1-0 at home last Sunday) to go with a goalless draw against Tottenham.

The frustration is that the numbers underneath are not awful.

They average 17.1 shots a game and an expected goals figure of 1.65, against just 0.71 goals actually scored.

They are also tighter at the back than Ipswich, conceding 1.29 a game, so this is a side creating chances and not finishing them.

They are one point behind Coventry in 17th, so a result here would feel like a rope being thrown.

Across the last seven league games Ipswich have won three and lost four, with no draws, while Forest have won one, drawn two and lost four.

Ipswich's record looks the better of the two, but it has been swinging in the wrong direction, with defeats to Manchester City and Everton either side of the Fulham win.

Forest's run is poor on the face of it (one win in seven), yet they have been competitive for long spells, with a draw at Liverpool and a narrow loss to Arsenal at the City Ground last time out.

The form says Ipswich, but the underlying shot volumes say Forest are not as bad as their points tally suggests.

Ipswich are tenth on nine points from seven games, with a goal difference of minus four, and they sit just one point behind Brentford and Leeds in the top half and four clear of Fulham in 18th.

Forest are 19th on five points from seven, level with Fulham but behind on goal difference (minus four against minus three), and they are one point shy of Coventry, Tottenham and Bournemouth on six.

Both sides have played seven games, so there are no games in hand to muddy the picture.

A win would give Ipswich 12 points and a real foothold in the top half, while defeat would see them slide into the cluster below.

For Forest, a win would lift them out of the bottom three. A loss would leave them with five points from eight games and a real sense of crisis.

The last ten meetings read as six wins for Forest, two for Ipswich and two draws, with an average of 2.8 goals a game.

Both teams have scored in half of them (50%) and 40% have gone over 2.5 goals.

The most recent meeting was at Portman Road on 15 March 2025, a 4-2 win for Forest in the Premier League. Before that, Forest also won 1-0 at the City Ground on 30 November 2024 and went through on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the FA Cup on 3 March 2025.

The history leans Forest's way, but it is largely a record from a different era for both clubs, and the sides have changed plenty since then.

The goals data points both ways: 2.8 a game suggests a lively match, but only four of ten went over 2.5, and Forest's season-long lack of goals at home is unlikely to be fixed by a trip away.

For the markets, the head-to-head leans towards BTTS being close to a coin flip, and the correct score is more likely to be a low-scoring win for one side than a draw.

The biggest gap is at the back.

Ipswich have conceded 2.14 goals a game over their last seven and carry an expected goals against of 2.02, while Forest sit at 1.29 conceded and 1.19 expected.

If you are looking for a reason Forest might get a goal here, that is it.

The second gap is shots. Forest average 17.1 a game, Ipswich 11.0, though Ipswich put 4.43 on target to Forest's 3.57, so the hosts are more efficient with fewer.

That is a nice way of saying Ipswich score when they get the chance, and Forest simply have not.

Possession is similar (43.1% Ipswich, 45.6% Forest), so expect a scrappy game decided by who takes their chance first.

Ipswich have mostly played a 4-2-3-1 this season and should stick with it, with a couple of midfield fitness calls to be made. Forest have used a 3-4-2-1 in all seven league games and there is little reason to change.

Ipswich: Palmer; Furlong, Greaves, Kipré, Davis; Matusiwa, Palacios; Fatawu, Enciso, Philogene; Akpom

Nottingham Forest: Sels; Milenković, Murillo, Diomande; Aina, Sangaré, Domínguez, Williams; Hudson-Odoi, Ndoye; Wood

Kick-off at Portman Road is 20:00 BST on Friday 23 October.

The game is shown on Sky Sports where selected, with Premier League rights shared with TNT Sports this season. A specific channel has not been confirmed yet, and this page will be updated closer to kick-off.

The value here sits with the hosts. Forest have not scored at home all season, Ipswich have the better points return and the home crowd, and the price on a home win still looks fair. The goals markets are trickier, because Ipswich leak freely and Forest create plenty, which makes both teams to score the more interesting angle than the straight totals.